Horizon Private School (MOE) - KhalifaPrincipal & Leadership Team

Horizon Private School (MOE) - Khalifa is led by Principal Christopher Tompkins, an educator with 36 years of experience across independent, boarding, and international schools spanning the United States, South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Before joining Horizon, Mr. Tompkins served as Founding Executive Director of EC-12 Education at NEOM, Saudi Arabia, where he opened and operated the first two NEOM schools and achieved full IB authorisation across all four programmes — a rare distinction. He holds a Bachelor's from Colby College, a Master of Social Science from Syracuse University, and is a Fellow of the Klingenstein Center at Columbia University's Teachers College, with additional certificates from Harvard, Cornell, and the University of Richmond. His guiding philosophy — "Every Child Known, Every Child Valued, Every Child Prepared" — is embedded visibly in the school's culture and communications.

The senior leadership team is notably deep, with six named department heads covering Early Childhood, Kindergarten, Elementary, Middle School, High School, and Secondary. Key figures include Executive Vice Principal Nicolas Jreije, who brings over 14 years in academic leadership, Head of Kindergarten Bushra Barsik, in post since 2009 with over 30 years of early childhood experience, and Head of Elementary Mary Elkhoury, who joined HPS in 2010 with nearly 30 years in education. Head of Secondary Tara Manson holds a Master's in Educational Leadership and brings 15 years of international school experience. This depth of long-serving middle leadership provides meaningful continuity at the departmental level, even as the school has navigated broader staffing pressures.

The 2024–25 inspection rated leadership effectiveness Good and self-evaluation and improvement planning Good — an improvement from Acceptable in the prior cycle. However, governance rated Acceptable, and inspectors specifically called for stronger accountability mechanisms, including KPIs linked to a systematic annual review cycle. The school has faced genuine operational headwinds: the inspection report explicitly flags a high staff turnover rate and an influx of 200 new students as challenges that have tested leadership's ability to embed improvement strategies consistently. Inspectors recommended that leadership improve its management of teacher turnover to provide the stability needed to sustain progress — a concern parents should weigh carefully.

On the positive side, parents and community engagement was rated Very Good — the school's strongest leadership sub-rating — reflecting regular open houses, parent workshops on reading and academic support, and active communication around international assessment results. The school is operated by Alephya Education and holds Cognia accreditation, providing an external quality benchmark. With 113 teachers serving 1,520 students, the school's student-teacher ratio stands at 1:13, which is broadly in line with the Abu Dhabi city average of 1:13.6 across all private schools. [MISSING: staff qualification percentage data — percentage holding postgraduate degrees not disclosed in inspection report or school sources].